John Herron scored the only goal of the game as Scotland beat Romania 1-0 last night to qualify for the next stage of the u-19 European Championships.
The Celtic midfielder scored just before half-time to take Ricky Sbragia’s side onto six points with Sunday’s match against Switzerland to decide which nation tops the group.
Scotland won their opening match 4-0 against Armenia with four Celtic players starting both matches.
Joe Chalmers opened the scoring against Armenia playing alongside Marcus Fraser and Stuart Findlay in defence.
Herron, Chalmers and Fraser have been at Celtic for almost ten years, scouted initially under Tommy Burns and developed under the academy structure managed by Chris McCart.
With substantial international experience to go alongside playing in the Next Gen Series this batch of players have had a more intensive education than any other generation coming through at the club.
Chalmers and Fraser have both made brief first team appearances and been listed in the Champions League squad while Findlay, who is a year younger, played 90 minutes for the first team away to Norwich at the end of last season.
With heavy international and Next Gen commitments domestic fixtures can be a rarity for the current crop of u-19 players allowing younger players such as Jamie Lindsay and Lewis Kidd to be regulars in Celtic’s u-20 side.
Securing the next step in their development is the toughest task for any player with the last ‘generation’ of Celtic youth players failing to make the grade at the club.
Darren O’Dea was in and around the first team for a few seasons but never made nailed down a regular first team place while others such as Simon Ferry, Paul Caddis, Scott Cuthbert, Ryan Conroy, Scott Fox and Mark Miller have made the step up to the senior ranks without hitting the heights that they would have hoped for.
This afternoon in Malaga Tony Watt and Callum McGregor are on u-21 duty against USA with Celtic supplying 8 of the 16 players named in the Scotland u-16 squad to play Northern Ireland in the Victory Shield match at Queen of the South on October 26.
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Well done John.
Took his goal really well, although it was against the run of play. Great result and fantastic to have qualified with a game left v Switzerland.
Herron looked the pick of the Scottish squad, tireless work from mid to front and helping out defensively even very late on. Always impressed and good to see his continued progress.